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A Rainy Week

This post was written by Julia, a Red Nose intern from Germany. This is Julia’s fourth post; to read more by Julia follow the links below.

My fourth week started on a Sunday. I joined Red Nose and the children in Jakarta International School, where they practice circus and acrobatic. It was a nice experience to see the children out of their usual environment in Cilincing and Bintaro. Compared to the facilities where the children train their circus skills normally, JIS offers a lot of different opportunities and facilities. The building is quite big thus the children are able to move freely and practice also acrobatics, which is not imaginable in Cilincing or Bintaro. The children, in short time, created small circus shows from which I was quite impressed. Also there I am still not able to juggle with three balls (Am I making progress?…;)).

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Aside from my activities in Red Nose, I had a great weekend, my first weekend in Jakarta;) I met a friend and he showed me the old city center and I got a different view on Jakarta than only moving between Pondok Indah, BSD, Bintaro and Cilincing. I met new people and collected different impressions of the city. Next to that I bought a new camera, after I had to figure out that the cost of repairing the old one are nearly as high as buying a new one and after 5 months of daily usage it is maybe the time to accept that the old camera did a good job;) But as result I can also provide new pictures for you from my fourth week at Red Nose Foundation.

The beginning of the week was characterized by the heavy rainfalls in Jakarta. On one hand I am not used to heavy rain in Germany or any other places I have lived in. While we were leaving Bintaro on Monday evening after the lessons with the children, the streets were already flooded and the rain was heavy. First I was only impressed by so much water, later I had to realize the consequences of the floodings… It took me three hours on Monday and four hours on Tuesday to come home, which is normally supposed to take me only one hour. The long journeys by bus with the freezing air conditioner are exhausting and I only wish that the rain will stop soon, but until now the weather does not seem to change.

My experiences to teach the children English are going well. Also if I meet my limits if I have to explain a child in Cilincing expressions like: locations where people from the upper class are living. Sometimes it is quite hard to see how the educational books from school are missing the reality of these children. Of course the books are written for the whole Indonesia, independently from the social class the children are from, but still makes it the effort to translate and teach the vocabulary not easier and somehow ridiculous.

At the long weekend I will visit a friend in Bogor and as I was describing before I am looking forward to see some nature and a different environment the crowded and busy Jakarta.